Off to the races!

Re-election time is upon us, and I’m excited to offer myself once again for the position of Regional Representative. I believe that over the last three years we have done great things together, but there remains more to be done. I hope I can count on your support to continue doing the hard work I’ve been engaged in for the last three years defending our interests before an increasingly organized and always-intransigent employer.

My proudest achievements in the last three years have been when we have brought unfairly terminated employees back to work, or reversed unfair disciplinary measures. Our team has been able to secure payment of lost wages from the employer, including sums related to discipline, in excess of $40,000 to a variety of members. I successfully appealed a number of WSIB and employer insurance company decisions, ending in payments to members exceeding $20,000. We added psychologists and massage therapy to our benefits package, and finally increased the amount our members receive on short-term disability from $610 to $670 per week by the end of the contract. We got rid of unpaid lunches and brought back 4-and-3’s across several departments for Agreement 1. I have helped several members through the retirement process, including applications for disability pensions.

This said, there remains a lot of work to be done. Our members are getting hurt more often and have more problems with insurance companies than ever before. The employer’s approach seems to be to issue heavy-handed discipline and then fail to negotiate with us to mitigate it, which forces us to take the cases to arbitration. They equally refuse to negotiate with us when it comes to issues like opening the Ottawa terminal and other strategic decisions that could have a large impact on our membership.

At times like these we need someone with experience, intellect, foresight, and integrity to stand up for our rights. I believe I am this person and I urge you to support me in this election.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.